Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter go to Grumpy DelSan13, Astilbe, Rose, melodia, Dottyanne, blackenedwolf, wayliz and Mandy may, your reviews have all made me smile. Thank you for the encouragement. I appreciate your thoughts and comments so when you're done reading please do type a quick note and hit the review button, getting them in my inbox makes my day.

This story is Beta'd by SeptemberSkies without whom it would rougher than rough and there is a good chance it would also be a lot more confusing. Thank you for your time, effort and words of encouragement SeptemberSkies!

Lastly, the same disclaimer from the introduction still applies.

Happy reading (and reviewing)

Chapter 3

(BPOV)

I sat up quickly, pushing my duvet off as I gathered my legs under me and made for the door. My heart was still pounding as I ran down the stairs, past a concerned looking Jasper, and into Carlisle's study. I slammed the door shut harder than I meant to behind me and looked steadily at my father. He put down the medical journal that he had been reading and looked levelly at me, clearly unsure what to make of my entrance. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my sweats and frowned at him.

"How's the headache?" He asked me. He had clearly been talking to Alice.

"It's annoying." I shrugged not sure how else I was supposed to describe it.

"Did the aspirin help?" He frowned.

"Didn't make a difference." I replied.

"If it is still bothering you later, let me know and I will give you something stronger to help." He smiled encouragingly at me.

"I'll let you know." I nodded and took a deep breath, biting at my lower lip with my teeth.

"Now, what did you really want to talk to me about?" He enquired.

"Remember when I was twelve and we were up in Alaska with the Denalis and I cut myself and almost sparked World War Three?" I asked him.

He nodded. Emmett had been preoccupied keeping Jasper under control, Alice and Rosalie had fled the smell and Esme had done her best to keep me from passing out until Carlisle had arrived. It wouldn't have been that big a deal if we had been at home and not visiting with the Cullen's friends. Only Kate and Tanya had been in the house, which was probably the only reason I was still alive. Rosalie had been able to keep Tanya away but Kate's ability had Esme and Alice incapacitated before there was time to blink. Carlisle got there just in time to stop her from actually biting me but not before she had licked the blood from the cut on the palm of my hand.

There hadn't been enough venom to cause any lasting damage besides an inch and a half puckered line of cold scar tissue on my palm. It wasn't necessarily the incident as a whole that I was referring to, but the aftermath of it. While I knew that my family members were vampires I hadn't ever been told what that truly meant. I had no idea that my blood was as attractive to them as drugs to an addict. I hadn't known that my parents had died because my blood sang to Carlisle's son so strongly that he couldn't fight the craving, or that even to the rest of the vampires who had smelt it, my blood smelt just that little bit sweeter than average. Until that moment I didn't know what it was to be bitten or turned and the consequences that came after.

"I remember the whole family making an agreement not to keep me in the dark or lie to me any more when it came to things that affected this family or my safety." I said, even as my pulse raced ahead fuelled by the residual adrenaline my nightmare had produced.

"Yes, we did." He nodded again.

"Then why didn't you tell me that there were werewolves in Forks?" I asked. In truth I hadn't been sure that I was right until I saw the expression on my father's face as I asked the question, and suddenly I felt a little weak and sick to my stomach. There were other supernatural creatures out there and we were now living right in the middle of their territory. I went to rub my temple to ease the headache that I hadn't thought of for a few moments only to realize that it was slowly easing, perhaps the aspirin was taking effect after all.

"They aren't exactly werewolves and they don't pose a threat to you or directly to the family." He replied. Esme calling his name from the living room broke his train of thought. She sounded worried, upset even.

"I'm with Bella right now." He called back to her never taking his eyes off of me.

"You didn't think that I should know?"

"Many of your father's friends were descendants of the - " He was unable to finish his sentence before Esme spoke again.

"The Quileutes are here!" She sounded tense and Carlisle stood up from his chair and moved out of the office without further comment, his pace much quicker than normal leaving me to rush at a regular human speed behind him. What did she mean the Quileutes were here? Had the whole native community decided to descend on our doorstep? Why would that worry her? And then my mind started to further connect the dots that the fogginess of sleep had hidden from me. The werewolves that weren't really werewolves were Quileutes, they were descended from wolves according to their legends, why wouldn't it make sense that they still turned into them at will?

"Holy cow!" I exclaimed as I ran into the living room so that I could see out of the giant windows that lined the room from floor to ceiling not unlike the ones in my bedroom. There were six snarling oversized wolves, each easily the size of a racehorse, in our backyard headed up by a half-naked man wearing only a pair of cut off shorts who wouldn't have seemed out of place on an MBA basketball court. I tried to put the brakes on my dead run and ended up catching the hem of my sweatpants with one foot, a move that was destined to land me on my butt if it weren't for Esme's quick reaction time. Millimeters from contact with the hard wood floor she scooped me up and set me back on my feet. "What are they doing here?" I breathed as Alice came to stand next to me. The man was looking at us through the window though I knew they couldn't see us through the one way glass, so were the rest of the wolves, all except the russet colored one I had seen at the school.

"They're making sure that you're still human." Esme said softly.

"And then they'll go away?" I looked at Alice for confirmation.

"I don't know." She replied with a shrug of her dainty shoulders. "I can't see anything, it's all static." Her voice was strained, like she was still trying and coming up empty. Perhaps her gift was still 'malfunctioning', as she had put it over the last few months as her ability to see my future more than a couple of days or hours ahead had lessened, she'd even had trouble with Carlisle, Esme and Emmett on occasion in a way she had sworn she never had before and didn't happen with Jasper and Rosalie.

"Why is dad out there alone?" I asked as Carlisle walked from around the front of the house to stand in front of wolves. He was conversing calmly with the half-dressed man, his hands clasped firmly behind his back, his posture otherwise relaxed and calm as if he didn't realize that the wolves in front of him looked like they wanted to kill him. Especially the big russet one that was pacing back and forward like a trapped wild animal just looking for an opening to escape its confinement, it looked threatening, aggressive and frantic, like it was taking the willpower of the other five beasts in front of it to stop it charging forward and attacking.

"It's better if we appear less threatening to them." Esme responded but she didn't sound like she was happy about Carlisle's choice as the Quileute man responded to my father's words with large gestures and an angry expression. "One of their patrol said they heard you screaming. They came to check to see if you had been hurt." She looked down at me, her perfect brow creased slightly as she looked to me for some sort of enlightenment.

"You would have heard me if I had been screaming." I shook my head, thinking back. I had looked up werewolves on the computer, taken a nap and – crimson eyes, the color of freshly drawn blood, iridescent liquid dripping off of a razor sharp crooked smile, the icy cold of marble lips as they were drawn back and teeth ripped through the skin of my neck – I felt all my muscles stiffen, the adrenaline start pumping again as the memory of my dream sent a thrill of fear up my spine. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to dispel the sudden onslaught of emotion. "I had a nightmare. I was screaming in my nightmare." I whispered and Alice looked at me like she wasn't sure why that information was relevant.

The russet wolf snarled viciously, making me jump as it ramped up its pacing and pushed through the others. It took up position next to the man who was talking to Carlisle and I couldn't help but recognize the posture that it had taken. He was getting ready to launch an attack on Carlisle. I didn't think, I just reacted, heading out of the living room and through the front door as quickly as I could only to be caught in Rosalie's tight grasp before I could make it around the corner of the house and into the backyard.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked with one eyebrow raised as she caught me.

"It's going to attack dad!" I cried. She gave me a look clearly meant to get me to shut my mouth but didn't relax her grip at all. Jasper and Emmett were standing just in front of her; Esme appeared with Alice at our side.

"They aren't going to hurt Carlisle and even if they were, you would be the least effective in stopping them." Rosalie hissed at me. I glared at her, clenching my jaw. Had she been listening to the conversation in the yard at all? They were here because they thought that I was hurt. The quickest way to defuse the situation was to prove to them that I was alive and well, maybe then they would stop their aggressive posturing and leave us in peace.

"Let her go Rose." Esme said softly, reaching out and taking my hand firmly in one of her own. Rosalie's arm relaxed and then slipped down so that it was at her side again, she glared at Esme as she walked us past my siblings. "Seeing she's whole will help and it would probably be best to introduce the whole family anyway." She explained and they trailed a step or two behind us, with the exception of Emmett who took it upon himself to throw an arm around my shoulders. We were going to present a united front but it seemed he was also determined to keep himself firmly in the role of my own personal bodyguard.

"Mr. Uley, I would like to present to your pack, my family." Carlisle said without turning or missing a beat as we stopped a few paces behind him. "My wife Esme, my children Emmett and Rosalie, arranged the Treaty with your ancestors. Jasper and Alice were not with us when the original Treaty was signed but are more than aware of its limits and will adhere to them as strictly as the rest of us. As for Bella, you can see for yourself that she is well and whole and unharmed." Carlisle turned and smiled, holding out a hand and beckoning for me to join him where he stood.

I looked at the wolves gathered less than five feet from my father and the varied faces with the same expression on them all. They saw my family as prey and they wanted to kill them, even the one who was human had a thinly veiled mask of contempt on his face. The russet wolf, however, was looking at me like it forgot that the rest of the world was around it. Its gaze was intense and I shuddered under the weight of it as I cringed closer to Esme and Emmett's fingers tightened on my shoulder. The wolf snarled, taking a step forward until the man pushed it none too gently, it turned its giant head and its jaws snapped shut on air only six inches from the man's face.

"Jacob that is enough!" He snapped, pushing the wolf again as its giant mouth seemed to glue itself shut and he whined as he looked in my direction again. The wolf had a name and it was a nice one, I found myself thinking as I looked back at him strangely intrigued by the half pained expression that appeared every time he looked at me. "The Treaty was put in place for the protection of human life Dr. Cullen, keeping a human as a pet is not in keeping with the Treaty or the preservation of human life that was agreed upon with our ancestors." He spoke clearly and suddenly I was angry.

"I am not a pet!" I snapped, letting go of my mother's hand and shrugging off Emmett as I marched to where Carlisle stood and then took a step past him toward the large man. While the Denalis and other friends of the family certainly hadn't understood the attachment that my family had toward me and I to them, none of them had ever dared insinuate that I was a pet the same way that other families would keep a cat or a dog.

"Bella, sweetheart, it's okay." Carlisle said softly. He was so calm about everything as if these creatures who didn't even know us had every right to have opinions on a situation that they didn't know the first thing about but unlike him, I couldn't stop my temper from rising.

"No, dad, it's not okay!" I snapped. I was trembling I was so angry as I stabbed a finger toward a chest that rivaled Emmett's in musculature and was so defined he looked like he could have won a Mr. Universe pageant. "How dare you march into my family's backyard with six aggressive, oversized attack dogs and presume to know anything about us. How dare you belittle the relationship that I have with my parents and siblings. How dare you presume to be able to tell me how it is I should or shouldn't live my life, it is none of your business." I was breathing hard as I tried to control what was left of my temper. I looked momentarily over my shoulder at Jasper and frowned, wondering at the lack of interference until I realized that his eyes were focused on the wolves in front of me and he was concentrating hard.

"I don't think you understand how grave the danger to your health is, Isabella. Vampires are fickle creatures, they will grow bored of you, find you to be as appetizing as anyone else and then they will kill you." Mr. Uley said patiently like he was talking to a particularly stupid child. Emmett snarled as a string of explicates tumbled from Rosalie's mouth to mix with words of protest that were coming from Esme and Alice. It was all noise ringing in my ears as my open hand connected with a force even I hadn't been expecting to the tall man's face.

My hand was numb and then it was stinging and throbbing as I retracted it and cradled it with my other hand, my eyes wide and my heart sinking to my stomach as I realized what I had done. I had just provoked a werewolf. His already dark eyes seemed to turn black, the way that Jasper's did when he was agitated or hungry. The muscles along his neck and jaw seemed to ripple and pop as I took one shaky step back and then another as he took one toward me.

"That is enough Mr. Uley!" Carlisle's voice was sharp as I felt his arm reached out and pull me back toward him even as the russet wolf moved between me and him, his lips pulled back showing large white fangs and he growled at his own leader. I couldn't take my eyes off them or stop wondering what was going to happen next as they glared at each other. Carlisle had walked us back two more steps as he took the hand I was cradling into his and was gently probing along the line of my metacarpals. We were close enough to the family that they could get to me now before either of the wolves in front of us.

"Back up, Sam!" It was no longer a wolf that stood between me and the man I had assaulted but another man, equally as tall and intimidating as the first but unlike Sam Uley, he was completely naked. I couldn't help myself, my eyes traveled from the small of his back, up his spine to his shoulders and neck, amazed at the way that the muscles flexed under deeply tanned skin that looked as smooth as silk. I found myself wanting to reach out and touch that skin, to know what it felt like under my fingers and even as I stopped myself acting on the impulse I felt heat rush to my face.

"No one is going to hurt her, Jacob." My eyes snapped to Sam's face as he spoke but the man's words did nothing to make me feel better or make Jacob back away from him.

"Then back up." Jacob's rich baritone reverberated around us, making a shiver run up my spine.

"Dr. Cullen, I think that a frank discussion between us is in order. Do you have a private place where we can speak?" Sam looked past Jacob to where we stood, ignoring the request to back away from where he was standing. I looked up at Carlisle, his fingers had stilled, my hand held gently between his two much cooler ones and I had to admit that the throb was being dulled by the cold.

"Perhaps a discussion would benefit us all." He nodded, his face serious. "While I understand that you most likely don't feel comfortable coming inside alone, I would prefer that you only bring who you feel absolutely has to be a part of this discussion into our home. The rest of your Pack are welcome to stay outside and wait for you but any attempt to come inside will be seen as a further act of aggression on your part."

"Agreed." He nodded his nostrils flared, jaw clenched and neck muscles so tight every muscle and tendon was clearly defined. "Jacob, put some shorts on, Leah, you too. Jared, keep the kids in line and the rotation going. Unless there are obvious signs of distress, stay where you are. And someone call Emily and let her and the girls know what's going on." Sam Uley gave out commands like a man who was used to having them followed before taking a step forward. The smallest of the wolves, light grey in color took off for the tree line and I took an instinctive step back only to be stopped when I ran right into my father's stationary figure. Jacob didn't make a move to either put on shorts or get out of Sam's way.

"Rosalie, why don't you take your sister inside? Jasper, Emmett, Alice, would you please keep an eye on our guests?" Carlisle's voice was light and even but it was Alice that fluttered to my side and hooked an arm through mine, not Rosalie who remained at Emmett's side glaring at the wolves.

"Coming?" Alice smiled at me and I took a deep breath before nodding. She led me back into the house, the back of my neck burning where I could feel his eyes on me. Those liquid dark eyes that had locked to mine just once, and for only a millisecond, yet I couldn't get them out of my head.

-BMR-

(JPOV)

A shiver of fear that I knew wasn't my own had grabbed my attention from my calculus homework and had me moving for the door, but it was terror and a scream so intense it took the air from my own lungs that made me phase on the back porch and take off running toward the Treaty line. I knew what I felt and I knew what terror like that meant. Isabella was fighting for her life if she wasn't already mortally wounded. I had to get to her, I had to protect her!

Jacob? Sam's voice in my head was quickly joined by his black form matching pace with mine. I didn't try to explain I just thrust my memories and feelings at him. Paul, Jared, Leah, Embry, Tristan catch up. Quil, Nathan the girls are at Emily', get to them and protect them! The rest of you pups tighten up the patrol. Nothing gets past us.

Isabella! Her name looped through my mind like a skipping record until her emotion was gone.

Did she get bit? Tristan slipped alongside me and I growled at him.

How long does it take someone to turn into a leech anyway? Jared mused and I tried to block out the panic that that question made flare through my body.

Who the fuck knows? It was Embry that sounded incredulous and I felt his shoulder bump against mine. My brother was with me and he had my back.

The girls are freaking out, what's going on? Emily's not going to be able to stop Rachel taking a chunk out of Quil if we can't give her answers soon. Through Nathan's eyes we could see Emily trying to calm my sister down as she screamed at Quil and Kim huddled in a rocking chair on Emily's porch, her large eyes filled to the brim with liquid. Jared's discomfort was palpable but somehow he managed to stop himself turning and running back in the direction of Emily's house, although a much quieter chant all his own joined mine.

We'll kill those fucking leeches and then we'll get back to the imprints! Paul snarled, he would protect my sister to the death and I knew it, but he also knew as well as I did that she was a firecracker and the only person in any real danger was Quil. Emily was nowhere near as fragile as Kim but Racheal was a few rungs on the ladder above even her when it came to backbone.

You're probably over reacting; you imprint people always over react, panicking if a poor girl get so much as a paper cut. Leah was scornful and easily dodged Jared's teeth, snapping and snarling right back at him until Sam came between them. Her words were only half serious; I could feel the twist in her gut as memories of the 'Swan girl,' as she was happy to label her, floated through her head again. Those beautiful brown eyes smiling up at a tank of a vampire, the way she walked arm in arm with the tiny female...

I would kill them all, rip them to shreds and watch them burn if she had so much as a mark on her or a hair out of place. But I was powerless, Isabella, the Treaty made me powerless, Isabella, the fact that her family were vampires made me powerless, Isabella, and now all I could do was hope and pray that my life wasn't about to end before it had ever had a chance to begin.

Focus! Our Alpha snapped.

We'll get her Jake. There was conviction in Embry's mind that I wished I had in my own as Sam forced us all to stop in the trees just outside the clearing that held the Cullen's mansion-like home. He held us there by willpower alone while he phased and then led us forward.

"Don't do anything stupid Jacob." Sam ordered when he came to a stop and looked pointedly at the house. It didn't take long for the two males from school and the blonde female to appear at the side of the house and only half a second longer for Dr. Cullen, the coven's leader, to move at a steady pace past them and come to stand in front of us.

"I haven't had a chance to discuss your phone call with my family yet, Mr. Uley." His voice was smooth and light, pleasant in a way that was meant to make you trust him, but his scent repulsed me as I paced behind the line my Pack made.

"The girl was screaming, Dr. Cullen." Sam snapped. "Did you bite her? Let one of your twisted little family have her for dinner?" As the timbre of his voice got louder I couldn't stop my growl from joining in and then the knot of fear that had been in my chest came back.

"I can assure you that Bella is fine. No one has been screaming." He had both hands raised in a placating gesture I had seen my father use on the Council many times as I pushed my way past the rest of my Pack and growled only feet from him.

"It's going to attack dad!" Her voice came to me clear as day and I almost felt sick when I realized that her fear that I could feel thrumming through my veins was being caused, not by the vampires that she was surrounded with, but us, and then she was moving through the yard, surrounded by her family, but whole. Her hair a little messy, face a little pale and clearly nervous, but alive and unharmed.

God she was so flawless it hurt!

Looking at her, the afternoon light catching the natural highlights in her hair, the alert chocolate colored eyes scanning the Pack and resting on me ached in a way that was pleasure and pain together. Knowing that she was still human despite the supernatural knowledge I had had only ten minutes before that she had been frightened for her life and had been terrified almost undid me. She was safe and I had never seen anything more beautiful than the pale creamy skinned girl leaning into the overly large vampire's embrace. That was until, her intelligent eyes flashed fire and she went toe to toe with Sam Uley, only making her more perfect, she was courage and fire as well as celestial beauty. There was nothing more in the world that I wanted then her in my arms with that body pressed firmly against mine…

Gag me! Embry snorted.

You're going to give me a boner for the leech lover in a second and you know just how much your sister would love that. Paul snapped, and was lucky that at that moment Isabella's hand connected hard with Sam's face, it gave me the willpower not to turn and launch myself at Paul. I could feel the extra charge in the air; feel the rage in Sam's chest as he looked down at her petite five foot six inch frame.

One threatening step forward, the look of fear that I could see on her face and feel radiating outward from her chest like it was mine, was all it took, I was between them and then I was human. In that moment he wasn't my Alpha anymore. I knew, that for her, I would step into my birthright long before I was ready if it meant stopping him from harming so much as a hair on her head. Protect, guard, and defend! It was like a set of commands written into my genetic code that, for Isabella Swan, I would obey until my dying breath, no matter what my opponent.

It didn't help that Emily's face was burned to my brain. Perfect proof of what could happen if a werewolf lost control too close to a human. Her lovely face was marred all because of an argument she got into with Sam over Leah. Emily hadn't even slapped Sam the way that Isabella had, perhaps it was because of that one step forward combined with the knowledge I had of the worst that I found I couldn't trust my own Alpha the way that I could only minutes before.

It wasn't until she walked away, arm in arm with the little pixie that I was able to worry about the fact that I was stood naked in the middle of her yard. My head was screaming at me as I shucked on a pair of shorts and turned to follow them. I shuddered, hating myself a little more as Sam settled a hand on my shoulder in understanding and pardon and we, with Leah, followed the Cullens into their house. It was as huge inside as it was outside, the first floor that we were led into was huge and a mostly open plan with a wide central staircase to the left of the front door, a large living room that was separated from the dining area with an L-shaped wall and beyond another L-shaped partition was a huge kitchen that Emily would have died for and would have taken up most of the first floor of my own home. Only problem was the smell, the whole house was saturated in the sweet smell of fermenting, earthy death that made my skin crawl.

There were only two fully enclosed rooms and it was to one of these rooms that we were led. Dr. Cullen opened the door and his wife paused in the doorway before he turned to Isabella and her escort. The pixie had a faraway look on her face and Isabella was frowning at her like she was concerned about something. "Alice?" He asked.

"Bella's going to make breakfast for dinner." Alice grinned at them like she had revealed an important piece of information before hugging Isabella close. "That's such a relief; I thought I'd lost sight of you for good this time." She was grinning as she turned away from her to look at the rest of us. She seemed to concentrate hard as she looked at us and I couldn't stop myself pulling to my full height and glaring down at her as her eyes moved slowly between the three of us standing in front of her. Leah growled softly next to me and Sam stiffened. What did she mean she thought she lost sight of Isabella, what were we missing?

"Alice?" Dr. Cullen said her name like there was much more to the question then just trying to get her attention.

"I'm sorry but I just can't see anything." The happiness she had displayed moments earlier disappearing to be replaced by an expression I could only describe as a pout. She made a noise at the back of her throat and Leah's growl got louder, her body language signaling just how ready she was to phase and stop the little vampire staring at us ever again.

"Leah." There was an edge of warning to Sam's voice.

"I have to take this phone call." Alice turned to Isabella who had taken a step back and away from us the look on her face cautious, the expression on Alice's face flipping quickly again to excitement. "You're just going to love the surprise!" She let a little laugh fall from her lips before skipping away and up the stairs just as a phone somewhere above us started to ring. I looked over at my Alpha, stunned. How had she known that a phone was going to ring or that she needed to be the one to answer it? What crazy fucked up shit was happening in this house where I couldn't do anything to protect my imprint?

"Would you like to join us Bella? It is you they wish to discuss after all." Carlisle asked her. She smiled at him in an effort I was sure to make him feel better; a smile that did little to make her look less worried or take the guard down from her eyes. She loved and relied on the vampire that much was clear, and that level of devotion went a small way in settling the sick feeling in my gut. God, I had this imprinting thing bad.

"I trust you to take care of this dad. I think I'm going to make something to drink and sit this one out." Isabella shook her head and turned to leave. The female vampire that the Coven leader had referred to as his wife cleared her throat lightly and Isabella paused looking embarrassed as she turned back around to look at Sam, Leah and I like she wasn't quite sure how to phrase the question she had been prompted to ask. "Do you guys want some coffee or tea or soda? I mean if you guys drink that kinda thing?" She looked hesitant; every time her eyes fell on Sam she bit the inside of her cheek like she was still waiting for him to jump out of his skin and attack her. I couldn't blame her for wanting to stay away from him. Leah opened her mouth as if to say something and then closed it again with a shake of her head as she shoved shaking hands into her pockets, Sam quirked an eyebrow and we shared a look, he had noticed her fear of him too.

"A coffee would be nice thank you." He said.

"Okay." She nodded and then looked expectantly at me. I must have stared for a moment too long because her brow furrowed. "Anything for you?"

"Coffee sounds nice." I nodded too, ignoring the snort of derision that came out of Leah's nose. "Want a hand?"

She thought about it for a second but finally nodded. "Sure." There was a little hesitance in her voice but she covered it up with a half-smile and beckoned for me to follow her as the others made their way into a room that looked like an office.